Explanation, apology for RTD speed bump

Last week, RTD's service was disrupted by the more than one-third of all RTD Stockton Metro operators who did not show up to work.

Donna DeMartino

Last week, RTD's service was disrupted by the more than one-third of all RTD Stockton Metro operators who did not show up to work.

I want to apologize to our customers for the inconvenience these actions caused, and I want to thank the many employees who did come to work and helped maintain service to our customers.

While RTD had to suspend service on some Stockton Metro routes, it was able to accommodate many customers travelling to and from school and work with its Hopper and Commuter routes, which are operated through a contract with MV Transportation. As a result, RTD was able to deliver over 90 percent of our scheduled hours and serve over 95 percent of our customers on Tuesday thanks to RTD operators, contract operators, and even supervisors who drove our buses.

By Wednesday morning, all routes were operating regularly, despite RTD still having more than one-third of its Stockton Metro operators on the sick list.

What is causing this?

In light of significantly reduced transit funding since 2008, RTD has had to reduce service and expenses. RTD has also worked to reduce the overtime it must pay. In 2012, an arbitrator agreed to a new provision in the collective bargaining agreement that requires payment of overtime only after 40 hours "worked" per week, rather than after 8 hours per day.

This was part of a package of strategies designed to reduce excessive operator absenteeism, which has a huge impact on operating costs and has been at the center of nearly every labor/management dispute at RTD.

Fortunately these essential, though unpopular, strategies have worked: last month's absenteeism rate was 9 percent - the lowest it has been in over a decade. When I arrived at RTD in 2000, operator absenteeism was between 25 and 42 percent every day.

What sparked the recent controversy? Three times each year, in compliance with the bargaining agreement, RTD develops a new set of operator work assignments (runcut), and operators select new work for the covered period. RTD develops its runcuts to be as financially efficient as possible, while also creating the best work possible for its operators. In some cases, work assignments have overtime built in. But for the most part, especially recently, individual assignments are designed to be as close to 8 hours per day as possible. Some work assignments end up less than 8 hours of work, but all operators who report to work as scheduled are guaranteed at least 8 hours of pay for that day.

The most recent runcut requires fewer full-time employees than the previous one, due to recent service changes, and enables RTD to not demote or lay off any employees in the hopes that federal funds, currently on hold due to a protest by transit unions - including RTD's union - will soon be released. If that occurs, RTD plans to add service on routes that have high ridership demand. But for now, overtime is limited.

Union officials reported some operators were upset by the lack of opportunity to earn overtime in RTD's latest runcut, and this appears to be the reason for the recent actions. I met with those union officials to discuss possible solutions and believed we had an agreement to avoid any service disruptions.

Regrettably, many operators deliberately decided not to come to work last week - on the first day of school for Stockton Unified School District - knowing their absence could compromise thousands of students who rely on RTD to get to school each day.

I am disappointed that our efforts to avoid demotions and layoffs was answered by unusually high absenteeism, which we believe is a union-organized activity.

I started my transit career as a part-time bus operator (and union member!) while raising six kids on my own and working full-time as a teacher. I understand and appreciate the work that all of our employees do to serve our customers. I hope that union officials will try to understand my responsibilities to our customers, community, and taxpayers.

Donna DeMartino, San Joaquin RTD's general manager and CEO since 2001, has worked in the transit industry for more than 25 years, having started as a part-time coach operator at Sacramento Regional Transit.

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